Brett Woods brings together a unique and perceptive collection of documents that not only offer a rare glimpse into the complex mind of Benjamin Franklin the diplomat, but also provide new insights into the French-American alliance against the British.

About the Author

Brett F. Woods is a professor of history for the American Public University System. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Essex, England.

He has written widely on political, military, and diplomatic history, with his work appearing in numerous academic and mainstream publications including the Canadian Journal of History, the Asian Studies Review, the California Literary Review, and the Richmond Review (London). He is a regular contributor to ABC-CLIO’s military and political history reference collections and maintains an active research agenda, primarily directed to the Anglo-American colonial experience and British imperial studies.

Dr. Woods has published five books with Algora: Thomas Jefferson: Diplomatic Correspondence, Paris, 1784–1789 (2016); Abraham Lincoln: Letters to His Generals, 1861–1865 (2013); Thomas Jefferson: Thoughts on War and Revolution (2009), Neutral Ground: A Political History of Espionage Fiction (2007), and Letters from France: The Private Diplomatic Correspondence of Benjamin Franklin, 1776–1785 (2006).

His associations have included The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, the American Historical Association; and the North American Conference on British Studies, among others.

About the Book

This selection of letters is an important contribution to the body of literature exploring French support to the American Revolution, and perhaps more importantly, provides an additional...

This selection of letters is an important contribution to the body of literature exploring French support to the American Revolution, and perhaps more importantly, provides an additional glimpse into the character and thought processes of Franklin, the diplomat.

All other achievements aside, in his eight years in France Benjamin Franklin emerges as an extraordinary individual, distinguished as much as a philosopher as a statesman. Whether he is writing to peers such as John Adams and John Jay, to French officials such as the Marquis de la Fayette and Count de Vergennes, or even to long-time British friends such as David Hartley, Member of Parliament from Hull, and William Petty, the second Earl of Shelburne, Franklin always reveals much, if not quite all, of himself. And whether the subject might be prisoners of war and privateers, or rules of engagement and reconciliation with England, he writes with remarkable clarity, insight and, on occasion, humor: the portrait of a thoughtful man following a challenging course through uncertain times.

The source material for this compilation is the 1817 text, The Private Correspondence of Benjamin Franklin. Where necessary, the editor has provided explanatory notes to assist the reader in placing the correspondence in its particular historical, political, or conceptual context.

While there are a number of general texts that, to greater or lesser degrees, deal with this period of Franklin’s life – Brands (2000), Srodes (2002), and Morgan (2002), among others – and these in addition to Schiff’s 2005 release: A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America which deals specifically with the timeframe – none offer any comprehensive inclusion of source material. To address this void in the literature, Woods embraces the subject, as the subtitle suggests, from a strictly documentary perspective. Thus, this text is both an original reference resource and a supplement to the existing literature. It presents, in its entirety, the original written correspondence which previous authors, in many cases, cite as the basis for their interpretation of events or conclusions of fact.

After decades of success in science and one of the more technologically sophisticated businesses of the day, printing, Franklin, then in his 70s, donned a fur hat and a simple costume and went to France to conquer a nation infatuated with Rousseau. He became a media star, noted (and perhaps influenced) the relentless merchandizing of his image and writings, and used his reputation as a man of the soil to create a quiet and effective web of revolutionaries' diplomacy as he circulated amongst the salons. Woods (literature, Harvard U.) has carefully mined Franklin's enormous correspondence from his eight years in France, and brings to the forefront the care with which his subject manipulated finances, opinion, spies, and his own reputation, eventually crafting the Treaty of Paris of 1783. The result is that we see just as much of Franklin as he allowed his friends and his enemies.